If you want to stay PvP then you could look at some of the lower pop PvP realms. Some forums posters have moved to them and say they are having a blast with population sizes feeling much more balanced and Vanilla like.
PvE gives you the best of both worlds you can flag yourself for PvP from day 1 if you wish to retain that sense of danger in the world, and they currently have some great wPvP going on at times, maybe all the time even. When you just want to get stuff done unflag and get on with it.
The community, least on my server seems pretty laid back and I have only come across a few unsavoury characters but you are going to get them everywhere, sadly.
I would suggest making level 1 toons and going to servers you are interested in and asking the faction you want to play what it’s like.